Housing Comeback - Buying A Home After Sandy And The New Housing Bubble

He said that he helped a couple buy a home that had basement flood damage. The seller had made repairs.

“The issue is they wanted to move to Long Beach,” he said. “They said at least they knew what happened to this home.”

But there were also many homes that were not flooded.

“Definitely Rockville Center is exceptionally sought after post-Sandy. It’s the first dry town, so to speak, out of the flood area,” he said.

The same goes for New Jersey.

“There are a lot of houses that weren’t flooded and are for sale, and there is business being done on the shore area,” said Tina Banasiak, president of the New Jersey Association of Realtors.

But for homes with significant damage or in the most vulnerable FEMA V-Zones, Banasiak said “there are a lot of questions in the buying process – FEMA, the elevating of the houses, and insurance rates.”

She said the key is getting a real estate agent who can help you through the complicated process.

As for the housing market on the whole, with prices going up, is it going into another bubble?

Mike Slattery of the Real Estate Board of New York told Kosola we are not heading into another bubble.

“People are looking at housing in the way it’s traditionally been looked at – as a place to live with long-term appreciation as opposed to a short-term gain like they were making an investment in the stock market,” he said.

“The process is definitely lengthier, but ultimately what you have is a much more educated consumer,” said Melissa Kleiner Cohen, a salesperson with Douglas Elliman in Manhattan:

Philip DeFranzo of NorCom Mortgage in Connecticut said qualifying for a mortgage and closing is so complicated now, it may actualy be keeping out qualified buyers.

“You know, I look at our own delinquencies that are almost non-existant. Maybe if we loosened up a little bit there might be a larger amount of people who can buy homes,” he said.

DeFranzo said it you owed more than your house was worth a year ago, your home may be worth more now, and you may be able to refinance or even sell.